LACK OF SURVEY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 942, 8 October 1910, Page 14

LACK OF SURVEY.

btq?vMfiyE:.L'ANl)S.-i , V(By .Telegraph.—Special'! Correspondent)'': >'•?"';;I■ : : ; 'v'Auckland^October 7.. ■'; : .'.'lt- 'was- recently'reported that"' the. Maori .Land Board .was-, preparing itb 'the :chief; surveyor, in accordance v with 'tW'Na-' .tivb Land'Act,.V-1909/-for*-the survey of ■are'as: aggregating.-,'about; 53,000,.acre5., 'As''- the-' Gbvbrnriient ; ' surveying '.. .- staffs have,'.i'in.. mostbases,' plenty; of -work 'to . do: 'it'is -clea'r : \that,' tliese ,;Native'. land .surveys will ..lib"'let .out, to private surveyors.',-The lack of'survey has,' in i tHe..pasi,.been.;;ajgreat^barrier'to the'settlement^'of./Native•lands'/-"';-A local surveyor of "standing, when 1 questioned ■ 'on the' matter,', .expressed the. opinion th'atvttiG':works '.could be' coped -with' if the 'Government'would' pay the surveyors .their, .schedule .charges, .The old Native.-'- laud .rates- .were '',': too low. Roughly -thp difference; between them and:theTatcs which,surveyors.consider-' ed;reasonable was:(with 'regard to;busb land)'about,£2 a mile. He-believed that the chief surveyors 'were now allowed by. the Government a: greater discretion as regards charges than 'was formerly the case.: The..old Native land, rates) . were fixed' something like 20 years ago, and it -should 'be> .-borne• in mind that -.the' cost of labour^-and' of .living had greatly increased, since then. On - the other hand .ho would admit .that the , paying was now undertaken'by the Government instead .of -by the Natives, and ' the : surveyor could now depend on get-, ting his money, instead of having to wait for it, perhaps_ for over.. In connection with complaints in the Poverty Bay district that .the Government Survey Office in Gisborne is so undermanned as to'cause conge'stion of work and delay.; The Auckland Survey Office was also much-under-manned, so that, for about a couple of years, no entries '.of ■ new "work had been made on the block sheets of- thp district. This omission /was a great handicap. He objected entirely to the system of calling on surveyors to tender-for-'work, which' system, it,was reported, had been attempted by.the Public Works Department in Poverty-Bay.